Almost two months after a devastating tornado whipped through the region, the community is still reeling. Of 2,150 students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, about 282 are displaced, their homes boarded up with plywood or demolished. Bleachers from the football field — some of the benches were found a half-mile away — remain stacked in a corner of the high school parking lot. Uprooted trees, piles of rubble and blue tarps are part of the landscape.
"We certainly have our challenges, but we'll be ready," said Kent Bugg, superintendent of Coal City Community Unit School District No. 1.
The violent storm that touched down June 22 was a "high-end" EF3 tornado, with winds of up to 160 mph, according to the National Weather Service. The twister cut a quarter-mile-wide path of destruction, leading to $13 million in cleanup costs.
Bugg's days have been filled with trying to restore normalcy to the K-12 district. An optimist by nature, he said the community of 5,500 was fortunate because the twister hopscotched between the middle school and high school, leaving the two buildings relatively untouched. The athletic fields, dugouts, tennis courts, bleachers, fencing and the press box sustained most of the damage. "But a quarter-mile in either direction, and the situation would have been much worse," he said.
Now, the superintendent's biggest concern is how to pay for unanticipated expenses — especially transporting far-flung students, who are now scattered across 16 communities, from Morris to Kankakee, some 40 minutes away.
Under federal law, those students are considered homeless and entitled to free bus service. "It would be nice to get some money from the state of Illinois, but we're not holding our breath," Bugg said. "So, we'll just have to get these kids to school — and figure out where to cut elsewhere."
The district is using a variety of solutions to transport students, including sending school district vans to communities where there are large numbers of students, partnering with other districts and relying on parents, who will be compensated for their expenses, Bugg said.
In the aftermath of the storm, Gov. Bruce Rauner declared Lee and Grundy counties, which includes Coal City, a disaster area, but the federal process for assessing need and determining aid is still underway, said Matt Fritz, Coal City village administrator. Only after the Federal Emergency Management Agency evaluates the situation would the state respond with its own resources, Fritz said.
Logistics and finances, however, must take a back seat to dealing with trauma, said Bugg, whose family — like many of the district's students and staff members — is living in temporary housing in Coal City. The second story of his house was damaged in the storm.
"If we can't meet the social and emotional needs of students, they won't be able to learn reading and math," Bugg said. "Many of our kids left with just the clothes on their back. Can you imagine how some of them will react the first time they see a dark cloud?"
When the tornado touched down, this working-class community was still rebounding from the recession. The number of low-income students more than tripled between 2000 and 2009, Bugg said.
More than 880 homes sustained major damage in the tornado, and 54 were stripped all the way down to the foundation, Fritz said.
On a recent morning, the buzz of saws and thumping of hammers echoed on some of the hardest-hit streets. But there are also numerous homes where rebuilding has yet to begin, as insurance claims drag on through the summer.
Only a hole remains of Cheryl and Ric Druse's five-bedroom, two-story home on Pheasant Lane, where at least 20 homes were damaged. During the storm, the couple and their children holed up in the crawl space, where they heard wood crunching, smelled gas and felt water rising around them.
When they emerged, they found that their house had cracked in half and turned on its foundation.
"The force is unimaginable," said Ric Druse, a science teacher in Homewood. "I've seen photos and movies, but unless you've lived through it, you can't even begin to describe it."
The Druses have five children — two in Coal City schools — and are staying in Morris, which has absorbed the biggest contingent of displaced students.
"We call it the rental. I don't think we'll ever call it home," Cheryl Druse said. "You go to get a soup pot and you stop and go, 'Wait a minute. I don't have one of those anymore.' It just keeps hitting you ... again and again."
Three doors down from the Druses is Tom Ruzinok's home, which probably won't be ready to live in until Christmas. He and his wife are renting in Wilmington while juggling his new position as assistant principal at the middle school, a 2-year-old and a new baby, who was due June 23 — a day after the storm — but arrived a month earlier.
"After the tornado, we definitely saw why," Ruzinok said.
Still, the prevailing mood in Coal City is one of gratitude. It's the kind of place where stores close early for high school football games and neighbors pull together in times of trouble. Backpacks and school supplies have poured into Bugg's office, awaiting anyone who needs them. The Chicago Bears donated $50,000 to the district's athletic facilities. An online campaign to help the Druse Family raised more than $25,000, courtesy of students and colleagues in Homewood, where Ric Druse has taught for 27 years.
The Druses know that, when all is said and done, stuff can be replaced.
"The trick is to not dwell on the negative, because we really are lucky," Ric Druse said. "If this thing had struck two hours later, everyone would have been asleep. It would have been a totally different story."
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